


We Would Drink Love Anyways

by quamquam20



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Assassination Attempt(s), Blood, F/M, Ficlet, Force Bond (Star Wars), Heavy Angst, Poisoning, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Resistance offers first aid training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27007204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quamquam20/pseuds/quamquam20
Summary: The Force bond gives Rey a chance to save him, but she has to act fast.Reyloween Day 14- Poison
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 36
Kudos: 115
Collections: Reyloween 2020





	We Would Drink Love Anyways

**Author's Note:**

> From @faunary's [prompt list!](https://twitter.com/faunary/status/1301256014566580224)  
> 

* * *

The Force connects them so ferociously that it tears through Rey's defenses.

Irritated, she slams down the hydrospanner she's using and whips around.

He's in the cluttered workshop with her, his hands clutched around his own throat, eyes wide and face red. Choking.  
  
He would do the same for her, so with a sigh, Rey storms over and positions herself behind him. Tips him over at the waist. A few bone-rattling thumps on his back with the heel of her hand, and he's not coughing.

“Didn't your parents teach you to chew your food?” she asks before hauling him back up and clasping her fist in front of him, just beneath his sternum. He's so wide, her arms barely reach and his panicked touch on her hands is clammy.

A sharp pull, up and back. And another. Nothing changes, and he's shaking his head, turning around in her arms.

Miming drinking. It dawns on her, horrible and icy and unreal. He's dying, choking on foamy blood, and it spills out of his mouth. She stumbles away from him to run for help.

“I'll get—”

Rey freezes.

What will she get? An antidote to an unknown poison? From where? A stim pack will only make it worse, with a racing heart. She blinks back tears at the suddenness and the disbelief. It's not supposed to be like this; he's supposed to hunt her forever. For all the ways she's tried to kill him, _never_ like this. Ever. It's vicious and she can't think of anybody who deserves it, except maybe the person who did it.

Her arms are around him again, fiercely gentle this time. It's all she can do, unready, and when his blood drips onto her shoulder, head heavy against her neck as he starts to fade, she swears to herself that she will keep it together for the last moments. The breakdown will come after, when she is alone.

With the Force, she tells him kinder things than she has ever spoken: that he was wanted all along, that he was born belonging, that what she saw when they touched hands made the universe shrink until it was only them and she will never regret going to him.

And there's a wellspring inside of her then, glowing and calm and hers. Like she's watching herself from a distance, she sees how she siphons it from herself and into him. A trickle at first, and then a torrent. She can never get it back, but it's hers to share. The heaving chokes stop. His knees stop buckling. She sobs then, but his weight is not a dead weight. His first breath is so fluid-filled that he immediately coughs before it smooths out to something strained but clear.

Rey strokes his back, telling him over and over that he's okay. He doesn't need to hear it as much as she does, so she keeps going until he unsteadily lifts his head and steps back, staring at her for long moments.

“I thought it tasted weird,” he says finally, raspy and raw, and Rey's nose-running laugh is pure relief. Ben swipes at the blood he left on her white tunic. “Sorry.”

The single word hovers in the air, light and drifting, and Rey wants to spin through it like snowflakes.

“It's okay.”

They could be ripped apart again, at any moment, separated like this, with him surrounded by people who want him dead. An opening door or a shouted interruption. Rey can't bear the thought of it so soon, so she holds out her hand to him.

“I'll keep you safe,” she says. A promise that she will honor until there is nothing of her left. The war will be a long-ago memory they rarely talk about, except in their soft midnight bed with the lights off, when things have to be said to make the morning honest. Until the desperate way they fought seems like part of a stranger's story. Far stronger ties already span between them.

Ben takes her hand.

And he steps through.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor. This is not medical advice. Poison is bad.


End file.
